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[Cob] thermal mass, insulation and "Ianto says"Amanda Peck ap615 at hotmail.comFri Jul 23 08:10:00 CDT 2004
My guess is that you may not get much in the way of good scientific comparison on the difference between "thermal mass" and "insulation." You're measuring different things when you do laboratory tests, IIRC. Rob Roy in upstate New York uses--or used--some hybrid components in his cordwood masonry buildings--a layer of fiberglass in the center of his walls. He reported in one of his first books going away for days leaving the sole source of heat in his house a couple of big dogs (presumably somebody came by to feed water and let them out occasionally), coming back to a still warm house. The Nearings--and the other couple who learned from them and then wrote the book--both on the New England coast, really loved just the slipform concrete with stone, found it warm and wonderful. I'm too lazy to look it up, but as I remember it "IANTO SAYS" that you're fine in a house you actually live in full-time with cob and no extra wall insulation. If you're going to use the building as a once-a-week community center or for ski vacations, heavy duty insulation is better because.... While thermal mass holds heat beautifully for reasons having not all that much to do with insulation values, it also holds COLD once it gets COLD, and might take a day or so to warm back up, not good at all for occasional use buildings. Which would lead me to wonder if "best of both worlds" might not be fiction when it's applied to a rarely used building. Unless of course you go to PAHS--Passive Annual Heat Storage. THis list DOES NOT NEED to go there, I think there's a list more or less of its own, and there are plenty of threads in other lists available for a search. _________________________________________________________________ Planning a family vacation? Check out the MSN Family Travel guide! http://dollar.msn.com
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